


A Trip With My Dad

by sabaceanbabe



Category: True Blood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-08
Updated: 2010-09-08
Packaged: 2017-10-11 14:37:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/113508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabaceanbabe/pseuds/sabaceanbabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Jessica and Bill are thinking about a little road trip...</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	A Trip With My Dad

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Trueblood Last Author Standing challenge at Live Journal for the prompt: _road trip_. Unbetaed.

Jessica Hamby stared at the red "Exit" sign over the door and bounced a pencil against the order pad in her hand. Around her, the buzz of conversation of a normal evening at Merlotte's faded into the background as she brooded.

She had finally gotten through to Bill that he couldn't just leave her to learn how to be a vampire on her own, though it kind of pissed her off that it had taken what her human daddy would've called a temper tantrum, complete with shouting and tears, to do it. She'd had fun when Bill had shown her how to zoom around their old house, vampire fast, but even new as she was to this whole vamp thing, she knew that wasn't going to be enough. He still hadn't touched on how to know when enough was enough so you didn't kill anybody, and that was kind of the whole point, wasn't it?

"Jessica!" Lafayette shouted. Feeling a little guilty, she slid her order pad and pencil into the pocket of her apron and hurried over to the window. "Order so up, girlfriend, it on the way back down."

"I'm sorry, Lafayette. I've just got a lot of stuff on my mind right now."

His expression was sympathetic even as one perfectly arched brow, highlighted with gold, rose in question. "You too young to have so much on yo' mind, even if you _are_ a vampire," he told her as she transferred the order for table twelve, only slightly cooled, to a serving tray. "Maybe you should talk to Sam about a night or two off to get yo' shit together. Do you some good to get away from this place for a little while."

Hefting the loaded tray, she smiled distractedly at him. Lafayette was right, she decided. She did need a night or two off, without outside distractions, to "get her shit together." Vampire or not, she didn't want to accidentally kill anyone else.

With a little more bounce to her step, Jessica set out for table twelve. _Bill and I are just going to have to take a little road trip_, she thought as she set up the tray stand and set down the tray.

***

Bill Compton sat in the dark and stared into the orange embers of his fading hearth fire. He could have taken the half-dozen steps necessary to reach the fireplace, to poke the fire back to life, but his mind was elsewhere. He had only lit the fire for atmosphere, anyway; vampires did not feel cold the way humans did, and in any event, the summer night was warm.

His child was not yet home from work, not yet available for further tutelage in the ways of their kind.

That was the reason for Bill Compton's brooding state.

Never would he have believed that such a thing would come to pass, that he would be required to teach another formerly living, breathing being how to behave in company with the still living, things his own maker had taught him so many decades ago. Lessons he had learned under extreme duress and that he had never entirely accepted as The Way Things Must Be. In his avoidance of such things with regard to Jessica, however, he had done the girl a great disservice, one which could possibly cost her her life and which had certainly cost at least one man his.

He had to admit to himself, reluctantly, that no matter how savage or merciless Lorena had been, she had indeed taught him to survive and thrive, and he must pass that knowledge on to Jessica. Her education in the ways of vampires had begun, but what he had taught her thus far was not enough. Nor could he do an effective job in their current circumstances, which fostered the constant distractions of this modern age.

No, Bill decided amidst his brooding, he and Jessica must do as he and Lorena had done more than a century before, mere weeks after his own turning.

In contemporary terminology, he and Jessica must engage in a road trip.

***

When she got home from work, Jessica burst through the front door, shouting Bill's name. She came to an abrupt stop as she ran full force into his chest; his hands on her arms steadied her and kept her from falling backward.

"Were you waiting for me?" she asked him.

"Yes, Jessica, I was," he calmly responded. "We need to talk about your further education."

For an instant she had a flashback to her human father. Just a few days before her life had changed forever, he'd come to her with almost the same announcement, except in his case, he'd been talking about college.

Bill let go of her arms and Jessica took a step back even as he moved from the doorway so she could enter.

"Bill, I was thinking," she began, stepping past him into the foyer and turning to again face him.

"Jessica," he said. "I believe--"

In unison, they said, "We need to take a road trip."


End file.
